ArticleJMIR public health and surveillance2021
Novel Methods in the Surveillance of Influenza-Like Illness in Germany Using Data From a Symptom Assessment App (Ada): Observational Case Study.
Article in JMIR public health and surveillance, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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3 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- What are the characteristics of participatory surveillance systems for influenza-like-illness?Journal of global health · 2023Pooled it
- Accuracy of Artificial Intelligence Based Chatbots in Analyzing Orthopedic Pathologies: An Experimental Multi-Observer Analysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Predicting the incidence of infectious diarrhea with symptom surveillance data using a stacking-based ensembled model.BMC infectious diseases · 2024Article
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5 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundParticipatory epidemiology is an emerging field harnessing consumer data entries of symptoms. The free app Ada allows users to enter the symptoms they are experiencing and applies a probabilistic reasoning model to provide a list of possible causes for these symptoms.
objectiveThe objective of our study is to explore the potential contribution of Ada data to syndromic surveillance by comparing symptoms of influenza-like illness (ILI) entered by Ada users in Germany with data from a national population-based reporting system called GrippeWeb.
methodsWe extracted data for all assessments performed by Ada users in Germany over 3 seasons (2017/18, 2018/19, and 2019/20) and identified those with ILI (report of fever with cough or sore throat). The weekly proportion of assessments in which ILI was reported was calculated (overall and stratified by age group), standardized for the German population, and compared with trends in ILI rates reported by GrippeWeb using time series graphs, scatterplots, and Pearson correlation coefficient.
resultsIn total, 2.1 million Ada assessments (for any symptoms) were included. Within seasons and across age groups, the Ada data broadly replicated trends in estimated weekly ILI rates when compared with GrippeWeb data (Pearson correlation-2017-18: r=0.86, 95% CI 0.76-0.92; P<.001; 2018-19: r=0.90, 95% CI 0.84-0.94; P<.001; 2019-20: r=0.64, 95% CI 0.44-0.78; P<.001). However, there were differences in the exact timing and nature of the epidemic curves between years.
conclusionsWith careful interpretation, Ada data could contribute to identifying broad ILI trends in countries without existing population-based monitoring systems or to the syndromic surveillance of symptoms not covered by existing systems.
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